Tattoos, Piercings and Being a Role Model

Is she serious?? A mother with tattoos and piercings... her child is DOOMED!

About me...

    I have tattoos

    My tongue is pierced

    I’m a MOM

I know totally cray cray that I would even think of having children after “defiling” my body like that! Get me to a mental institution and my child into protective custody ASAP!!!

All joking aside, I want to address this stigma that tattooed mommas and poppas are unfit to parent. Although I do not HEAR the criticism, it is all over people’s faces when they first meet me and my daughter. Don’t get me wrong I am all about everyone having the right to their own opinion and the right to disagree. So here is what I learned about having Tats and holes and being a mom…

My Tat and Piercing Journey

Ah my 18^th birthday, that moment when I could officially write my own absentee notes to school, buy lottery tickets, legally smoke cigarettes and GET A TATTOO!!! I did literally all those things on my 18^th birthday

now that is SEXY

(mine was extra special because it was the 18^th of the month too). I walked into the tattoo parlor with ZERO idea of what I wanted! This was a TERRIBLE IDEA (which you will learn I PAID dearly for late). If you are contemplating getting a tat regardless of your age, put thought into it! Don’t be a DUMBASS like me. Anyway, this “tramp stamp” was tribal of some kind, very generic and in black and white. I was one damn proud 18 year old who showed it off to everyone accept my mother (I already knew her disappointment). I do not have a goof picture but if you feel so inclined go ahead and stalk me on Facebook I know there is at least 1.

My second tat came about 3 months later and this one actually had “some” meaning. I went through this “phase’ where I was obsessed with the 7 Deadly Sins and of course the movie with heart throb Brad Pitt. So naturally, when you are obsessing and 18 years old you permanently mark my body. This obsession is LONG gone but I actually found another meaning for this, I am the 7^th DeHaven sibling and honestly 7 is just my FAVORITE number. So there’s that.

At the SAME appointment as my “7” I got my tongue pierced… I was literally about to start college and 

Take THAT!

thought FUCK IT, I’m expressing myself! I have actually missed a piercing but can now honestly now that I’m an adult. I went on a foreign exchange program when I was 16 years old. Awesome trip to Paris for a week and 3 weeks in Italy! It was there that my friend Stephanie held my hand when I got my BELLY BUTTON pierced! UMM not SMART when spending hours on a bus and sitting is painful (on the same trip I witness one of my fellow exchange students get her nipples pierced… UMM not for me).

I then took some time off from the tat and piercing world (mainly because they are expensive and I had other priorities). In February of 2009 I got my 3^rd tattoo and this one had some SERIOUS meaning. After my daughter was born she was diagnosed with a bilateral pneumothorax (basically 2 collapsed lunges). She spent 11 days in the NICU, 4 of those days with tubes in her chest so her lunges could heal. The hospital had the babies in cubicles and L happened to be Seahorse #1. So you guessed it, I got a seahorse and placed it on my upper right deltoid. Talk about IN LOVE! 

My most recent has certainly been a CHARACTER BUILDER! With over 10 hours of pain, tear, sweat and laying topless in front of my tattoo guy Dwaine (not to mention those others getting inked and the artists) my MASSIVE cover-up (remember that tramp stamp I told you about) is GONE! What replaced it? A phoenix and a pretty fucking awesome one if you ask me! Check out the progression...

Session 2: 3 hours body shading

Session 1: 3.5 hours line work

Session 4: 1.5 hours feather shading complete

Session 3: 2 hours feather shading

Session 5: 1.5 hours Finishing Touches

So, here is my final thought on tats and piercings and being a role model. They tell stories, I learned lessons that I hope to share with my daughter. When other children ask "What's that on your tongue?" I'm honest, "a tongue ring", "why do you have that?" "because I wanted it". PERIOD. End of convo. Do I think L is doomed to be a recluse or bad child because I have tattoos? NO, that's parenting style that ruins children. Her honesty and openness is a direct reflection of her interaction with me. She was almost as excited as I was while the phoenix was being completed.